At York University, the work of research does not always end with publication.
For real-world action to result from academic inquiry, researchers must be able to actively share and apply their findings.
This is the focus of York’s Knowledge Mobilization Unit (KMb Unit): to help scholars build relationships with community organizations, government and other non-academic partners. It supports efforts to share research in ways that are more accessible and usable beyond the University, ensuring York’s work reaches the right audiences.
For Michael Johnny, manager of KMb Unit, that work begins with communicating a simple idea.
“My definition of knowledge mobilization is that it helps take the best of what we know and makes it useful for people in our communities,” he says.
Located in the Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation, the unit provides services and resources for collaborative projects, helps broker partnerships and offers training and strategy support for researchers, students and non-academic collaborators.
Johnny says it plays an important role because academic research does not always reach audiences in the right way.
“If everybody accessed information through academic journal articles, then we really wouldn’t need a service unit like this at York,” he says. “But it’s safe to say that different audiences like to access information in different ways.”
That means helping researchers build relationships at the front-end of the research cycle, and offering assistance in translating findings into plain language. There is also a multitude of tools and resources that can help implement research into practice.
Among the unit’s core areas of work is partnership-building. Johnny says the office regularly engages with organizations such as York Region, the City of Toronto and United Way Greater Toronto to better understand the kinds of questions and broader thematic issues that matter to them. KMb Unit then works to connect those needs with relevant York expertise.
That collaborative work also shows up in how researchers plan grant applications, with the unit supporting scholars who require a knowledge mobilization strategy for federal funding applications.
“Quite often what they are looking for is help and support around developing that strategy,” Johnny says.
The impact of the unit’s work can be seen in the long-term research partnerships it has facilitated. Johnny points to the work of Jennifer Connolly as an example – a psychology professor in York’s Faculty of Health.
Through partnerships the unit helped facilitate in York Region, Connolly’s work took on a new direction, guiding graduate student research and overseeing collaborative projects while conducting research on gender-based violence.
Connolly works in partnership with York Regional Police and York Region’s Children’s Aid Society studying the prevention of sex trafficking. She uses her findings to develop tools and approaches for early intervention, such as the York Simcoe Sex Trafficking Screener.
“It completely changed the trajectory of her engaged scholarship,” Johnny says.
He also highlights the unit’s work with Community Music Schools of Toronto, originally based in Regent Park. After the organization approached the KMb Unit with a broad set of research questions, the unit helped coordinate an advisory group of York academics to respond.
According to Johnny, the resulting connections helped secure a $2-million endowment for the Helen Carswell Chair in Community Engaged Research in the Arts at York U, which creates meaningful opportunities for York students and faculty to work on projects shaped by community-identified needs.
KMb Unit’s training has expanded over time, including the introduction of MobilizeU, a non-credit course in knowledge mobilization. Johnny describes the offering as a “cornerstone service” that helps equip York researchers, students and community partners with tools and skills to maximize the impact of their work.
The success of MobilizeU, says Johnny, is due to the work of Senior Knowledge Mobilization Specialist Krista Jensen, who envisioned the program in 2017 and launched it in 2019.
The unit has also extended its reach through Research Impact Canada, a national network that grew out of early collaboration between York and the University of Victoria. Now made up of 46 members in Canada and the U.K., the network serves as a community of practice for knowledge mobilization, with York set to host its Canadian Knowledge Mobilization Forum in July.
For Johnny, one of the biggest challenges goes back to general understanding of what knowledge mobilization is, and why it’s important.
“For a lot of people, there is an understanding that knowledge mobilization is simply a dissemination or communications-based exercise around research,” he says. “And that’s not wrong. It’s just often incomplete.”
Applying research to real-world challenges, strengthening community partnerships and increasing research visibility are all key benefits of sharing the work of York academics.
Johnny notes that since it began operating in 2006, the unit has assisted in more than 1,600 unique interactions with faculty members, 2,000 non-academic partners and 2,500 students.
For Johnny, those numbers reflect the success of the KMb Unit and speak to the University’s a broader goal: helping research move into the world in ways that are collaborative, responsive and useful.
With files from Mzwandile Poncana